Women Bathing

Émile Bernard's 1889 depiction of women bathing in Brittany belongs to the critical year when he and Gauguin together formulated Cloisonnism — the style of simplified forms, flat color, and bold outline inspired by stained glass and Japanese prints. The nude bathing female, a subject reaching back through French painting to the Renaissance, is here transformed into a study in decorative flatness rather than classical ideal. Bernard's insistence on his own theoretical contribution to Post-Impressionist style remained a source of lasting bitterness with Gauguin. This painting shows him at the center of a genuine stylistic revolution occurring in a small Breton village.

Figures are rendered with simplified contours and reduced modeling, the hallmarks of the Cloisonnist approach Bernard was developing. The palette uses strong, relatively unmixed colors with dark outlines beginning to define forms. The flat treatment of water and land creates decorative pattern rather than illusionistic depth.